Punk rock

(Music, culture and origins)

Punk, also called punk rock, aggressive form of rock music that coalesced into an international
(though predominantly Anglo-American) movement in 1975–80. Often politicized and full of
vital energy beneath a sarcastic, hostile facade, punk spread as an ideology and an aesthetic
approach, becoming an archetype of teen rebellion and alienation. The music genre itself
emerged in the mid-1970s and was rooted in 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the
perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs
with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often
political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce
recordings and distribute them through independent record labels.
The term "punk rock" was first used by American rock critics in the early 1970s to describe
1960s garage bands and certain subsequent acts they perceived as stylistic inheritors. Borrowed
from prison slang, the word punk was first used in a musical context when compilation albums
such as Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets (1972) created a vogue for simple mid-1960s garage rock by
groups such as the Seeds, the 13th Floor Elevators, and the Mysterians. By 1975 punk had come
to describe the minimalist, literary rock scene based around CBGB, the New York City club
where the Patti Smith Group, Television and the Ramones performed. When the movement
now bearing the name developed from 1974 to 1976, acts such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash,
and the Damned in London and the Saints in Brisbane formed its vanguard in Britain. As 1977
approached, punk became a major cultural phenomenon in the UK. It spawned a punk
subculture expressing youthful rebellion through distinctive styles of clothing and adornment
(such as deliberately offensive T-shirts, leather jackets, studded or spiked bands and jewelry,
safety pins, etc.) and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies.
In 1977, the influence of the music and subculture became more pervasive, spreading
worldwide, especially in England. It took root in a wide range of local scenes that often rejected
affiliation with the mainstream. In the late 1970s, punk experienced a second wave as new acts
that were not active during its formative years adopted the style. By the early 1980s, faster and
more aggressive subgenres such as hardcore punk (e.g. Minor Threat), street punk (e.g. the
Exploited), and anarcho-punk (e.g. Crass) became the predominant modes of punk rock.
Musicians identifying with or inspired by punk also pursued other musical directions, giving rise
to spinoffs such as post-punk, new wave, and later indie pop, alternative rock, and noise rock.
By the 1990s, punk re-emerged into the mainstream with the success of punk rock and pop
punk bands such as Green Day, Rancid, the Offspring, and Blink-182.
 The first wave of punk rock was "aggressively modern" and differed from what came before.
According to Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone, "In its initial form, a lot of [1960s] stuff was
innovative and exciting. Unfortunately, what happens is that people who could not hold a
candle to the likes of Hendrix started noodling away. Soon you had endless solos that went
nowhere. By 1973, I knew that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bullshit
rock 'n' roll." John Holmstrom, founding editor of Punk magazine, recalls feeling "punk rock had
to come along because the rock scene had become so tame that [acts] like Billy Joel and Simon
and Garfunkel were being called rock and roll, when to me and other fans, rock and roll meant
this wild and rebellious music." In critic Robert Christgau's description, "It was also a subculture
that scornfully rejected the political idealism and Californian flower-power silliness of hippie
myth." After the pastoral concerns of the hippies, punk was a celebration of urbanism, a
reclaiming of the inner city.
The term spread to Britain, where the Sex Pistols were packaged by Malcolm McLaren to
promote his London store “Sex” which sold clothing daubed with slogans from the farthest
reaches of 1960s radical politics—e.g., the Paris-based Situationist International. Announced by
their manifesto, the single “Anarchy in the U.K.,” the Sex Pistols established punk as a national
style that combined confrontational fashions with sped-up hard rock and allusive, socially
aware lyrics that addressed the reduced expectations of 1970s teens. Armed with a critique of
the music industry and consumerism—embodied in songs such as the Sex Pistols’ “EMI” and X-
Ray Spex’s “Identity”—early British punk spawned a resurgence of interest in rock. Mirroring
social upheaval with a series of visionary songs couched in black humour, groups such as the
Buzzcocks (“Orgasm Addict”), the Clash (“Complete Control”), and Siouxsie and the Banshees
(“Hong Kong Garden”) scored hits in 1977–78. Anarchist, decentralizing, and libertarian, U.K.
punk was drawn into the polarized politics of British society and by 1979 had self-destructed as
a pop style. Postpunk groups such as Public Image Ltd. and Joy Division replaced punk’s
worldliness with inner concerns, matching rock with the technological rhythms of disco.
Nevertheless, punk’s influence could be seen throughout British society, notably in mass media
shock tactics, the confrontational strategies of environmentalists, and the proliferation of
independent record labels.
Although the Sex Pistols’ 1977 chart successes (principally “God Save the Queen” and “Pretty
Vacant”) made Britain the hotbed of the new youth movement, similar developments had
occurred in France, Australia, and the United States (notably in Cleveland, Ohio, where the
band Pere Ubu played a prominent role). Visits by British groups such as the Damned and the
Sex Pistols later fueled prominent regional punk scenes in Seattle, Washington; San Francisco
(the Dead Kennedys); and Los Angeles (X and Black Flag). Punk’s full impact came only after the
success of Nirvana in 1991, coinciding with the ascendance of Generation X—a new, disaffected
generation born in the 1960s, many members of which identified with punk’s charged, often
contradictory mix of intelligence, simplicity, anger, and powerlessness.